MURAL Live Sessions: Celebrating Music & Art

31 July 2018

MURAL, first and foremost, is a celebration of visual arts. Along with the live creation of murals, music has also taken an important precedence within the festival’s programming. This year, Ghost Club Records, Wanderers, the Apollo Studios and Fvckrender Studio teamed up to explore the musical side of creating through a series of live musical performances entitled Mural Live Sessions. “I find it important to share the raw talent of some artists in the same way that MURAL and LNDMRK are doing for visual arts,” Sebastian Navarro, manager for Ghost Club Records, explains.

As a result, with the premise to share the incredible talents of emerging artists, an intimate team of passionate creatives gathered over the course of one weekend to shoot a series of performances: “As a voluntary project, everyone who put their time and energy into this project did so because they wanted to. Not because of the money. I think that’s one of the reasons why the result is so exceptional,” claims Frédéric from Fvckrender Studio. “I was impressed with the quality and passion the team demonstrated during the project and I will forever be grateful to have been able to collaborate with such talented and overall amazing human beings!”, Zachary Bleau-Prévost, strategic partnership coordinator for the festival, adds.

The Artists

“After spending an extensive period of time in the United States, I came back to Montreal where I found myself blown away by the emerging talents that were developing here. I just had to get involved. So, this whole project really started out from a desire to showcase these amazing talents from Montreal,” Zachary tells. “All of the artists who performed on the series came to Apollo Studios to record, to create or to finalize a song. I didn’t want to chose only artists from our label as the goal was to contribute to the music culture more than promoting a collective, and supporting local talents was essential for that,” Sebastian explains. In the end, the sounds of RYAN Playground, Aaricia, CYBER, Lust, Lou Phelps, Lia, Kallitechnis and Heartstreets that contributed their musical intellect to the series.

The Visuals

With Fvckrender Studio in high demand, digital artist Frédéric originally turned down the request to join the project. It was Zachary who convinced him to participate: “He simply showed up to the offices. I instantly liked his entrepreneurial vibe,” Frédéric recounts. With the mandate of conceiving the stage design for the series, the guys from Fvckrender Studio created an urban, yet futuristic atmosphere, characteristic of their style and in accordance with the stage design they created for MURAL. “I have a fascination with construction sites. The tools and machinery, I find it beautiful. It’s what mainly influenced the stage designs of MURAL and the series. Then, we also created customized atmospheres for each artist with different light effects and image compositions,” Frédéric explains. “The idea was to develop a more intimate setting for artists to perform, while creating a stronger connection with the audience. I wanted to create something different and I think the mix of live performances and visuals created a very unique and creative concept,” Zachary adds.